Mosin,
an excellent summary you made which I will fully underwrite. Especially on idler drives many among us seem to have made not the best experiences and this is definitely due to the equipment they were working with. If you put a lot of efforts in carefully designing and implementing designs on belt drives (best with two excellent motors and a perfect steering) as well as idlers you reach wonderful results. It is more the concept and its implementation rather than the difference between the various drive technologies which makes the difference!
an excellent summary you made which I will fully underwrite. Especially on idler drives many among us seem to have made not the best experiences and this is definitely due to the equipment they were working with. If you put a lot of efforts in carefully designing and implementing designs on belt drives (best with two excellent motors and a perfect steering) as well as idlers you reach wonderful results. It is more the concept and its implementation rather than the difference between the various drive technologies which makes the difference!